Welcome

The American Book Producers Association was founded in 1980 as the trade association for independent book producers, also called packagers, in the United States and Canada. Members of this rapidly growing profession produce, from concept through finished product in all formats, a wide variety of titles for trade and other publishers as well as for corporations, non-profits, and other organizations. For more information on what book producers do and how they work, read the articles below.

What is a Book Producer?

Book producers, also known as packagers, are similar to independent producers in film and television; instead of shows, they make books for publishers, corporations, non-profits, and others. Book producers perform all of the creative and production functions commonly performed by agents and publishing houses, with the exception of marketing, sales, and distribution.

Book Producers Help Publishers Do More

Book producers provide original ideas. Packaged books can expand a publisher’s list with titles they can’t get anywhere else. The many hundreds of packaged books that have hit the shelves span the entire spectrum of publishing categories: art, medicine, cooking, history, parenting, gardening, sports, popular culture, self-help, business, and more. They also run the gamut of publishing markets, including trade, mass market, educational, juvenile, professional, and reference.

How Publishers Work with Book Producers

As publishing houses streamline their own staffs but still have to produce the same number of books, they often turn to book packagers to fill the gap. In these cases they will hire the producer to work with the author on a project already under contract to make it a book. Sometimes when a publisher finds that a book is running late and must get out on a very tight schedule, they will outsource the project to a book producer who will then shepherd the book through to completion.